Category: CLOSED Hodge 4: Idea and Metaphor

• Sam Beaver, but really all three of us cuz this was during our meeting.  
• Nominal Phrase:  Capital is not an ends in itself, but a means. 
• Willy Loman has some serious issues with money.  He fails to realize that getting money will not bring happiness.  To him, capital is the ends, the final goal of life.  As we see, he eventually gives his life for this end.   Miller is making the point that throughout “DOS” that in order to be truly successful one must love and respect his family.  Willy Loman does not understand that money is not the solution to his problems, and as a result dies in the pursuit.  Though money does aid one’s situation in life, the accumulation of wealth is not the thing that makes a man happy, as we can see from Biff’s final decision to move out west.  Willy’s self isolation from his family in the form of his death is his ultimate failure in DOS.  

By Eric Houdek

Willy: Figure it out.  WOrk a lifetime to pay off ahouse.  You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.(Pg. 15)

Willy: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!” (Pg. 16)

Willy: The world is an oyster but you don’t crack it open o a matress!(Page 41) Alejandro pointed this out.  

Charley: When a deposit bottle is broken you don’t get your nickel back.(Page 44)

By Eric HoudekDeath of a Salesman is a play in which the title comes into play throughout the course of the story.  All of the action and events in the story finally add up into Willy Loman's death, which indeed turns out to be the death of a salesman.  However, it is important to remember that Willy Loman's death was self-inflicted.  Death of a Salesman explores the many situations and conditions that have caused Willy to take his own life.                Willy is not the only salesman whose death is mentioned throughout the play.  Willy refers to Dave Singleman, a salesman who was still working at the age of eighty-four.  Willy cites him as the reason why he went into the occupation of being a salesman.  When Willy discusses his death and his funeral, he mentions that there were "hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral."                Willy's wife Linda is constantly fearing Willy's death.  She tells her boys Biff and Happy that "Your father is dying."  Knowing that Willy has tried to crash his car multiple times and has attached a rubber hose to heater in the basement, Linda knows that Willy will kill himself soon if things do not change.              Willy himself finds much comfort in the prospect of his own death.  Realizing that he has amounted to nothing, is unable to provide for his wife, and has failed to set a foundation for his son Biff's success under the American dream, Willy finds the $20,000 awarded to his family as a result of his death as his only source of refuge.  He makes a comment to Charley, "-a man is worth more dead than alive."              The Death of a Salesman in this play points to the fact that a man that has been failed by his dreams, morals, and beliefs will find more comfort in death than life.    EDIT by: Sam Beaver  This is all true, but i think we need to dive more into the actual reasons that there is a “death of a salesman” in the play.  the main ideas to consider here are:  the nature of the american dream, the extent one will go to create a legacy, and the importance of identity.  The identity issue can be seen through Singleman in many ways, because though he was a great salesman, he still died alone.  Willy is only concerned with a meaningless legacy that Singleman left behind.  What good is it to have hundreds of men you barely know at your funeral?  Willy neglects his true legacy, his family, in the desperate search for validation that he goes on.  What we need to take away  from the title and from Singleman, I think, is the nature of the salesman’s death.  There is no legacy, they all die alone.    Miller uses the title to project the universality of this death on the road, chasing the american dream. And this is a dream that, we learn, lacks moral value.  It is true that Willy eventually loses his morals, but it seems as though he never really had any to begin with.  Though he often preaches that a man can make a fortune just by working hard and doing his best, his actions contradict this theory completely.  Miller, in my opinion, is aiming to shed light on the perceived purity of the american dream.  Perhaps this is due to the time that we live in, but I would say that Willy’s hypocrisy is meant to expose the seedy, underhanded nature of such a dream.  The play is undoubtedly a voice against this “American Dream” that hopes so many men to death, and it also highlights the futility of individual hard work.  It’s all about who you know.   Finally, one must acknowledge that this play is not called “Death of Willy Loman.” He is the subject of the play, but it is not jst about him for the reasons mentioned above.  The title aims at a situation that befalls many, not just Willy

By Eric Houdek

In order to find which actions lead to the meaning, I think it will be important to list a couple of actions in the play which i believe are crucial in the play.  Feel free to add to this list or disagree with this list.  I hope we can come up with a nominal phrase which establishes the meaning of the play…

-Willy Loman’s first argument with Charley(in the sequence of the play)

-Willy’s argument with Howard, resulting in the loss of his job.   

-Willy’s discussion and argument with Bernard. 

-Willy’s final argument with Charley, in which he turns down a job offer yet accepts a loan to pay off his insurance. 

-The argument between Biff and Willy at Dinner. 

-Biff and Happy’s abandonment of Willy at Dinner.

-Biff’s final argument with Willy.  

-Willy’s taking of his own life.

-Charley, Biff, and Happy’s final statements about Willy’s life. 

-Linda’s final goodbye to Willy.

ERIC HOUDEK

 Willy: Without a penny to his name, three great universities are begging for him, and from there the sky’s the limit, becuse it’s not what you do, Ben.  It’s who you know and the smile on your face!  It’s contacts, Ben, contacts!(Page 86)

Bernard: Yeah, I’m going.  He takes the bottle.  Thanks, Pop.  He picks up his rackets and bag.  Good-by Willy, and don’t worry about it.  You know, “If at first you don’t succeed…”

Willy: Yes I believe in that.

Bernard: But sometimes, Willy, it’s better for a man just to walk away.

Willy: Walk away?

Bernard: That’s Right

Willy: But what if you can’t walk away?

Bernard, after a slight pause: I gues that’s when it’s tough.(Page 95)

Charley:Willy, when’re you gonna realize that them things don’t mean anything?  you named him Howard, but you can’t sell that.  the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell.  And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman and don’t know that.(Page 97)

 Willy, moving to the right: Funny, y’know?  After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointment, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.(Page 98)

Willy: A man can’t go out the way he came in, Ben, a man hast got to add up to something.(Page 125)

Biff: Pop, I’m a dime a dozen and so are you.(132)

Charley: No man only needs a little salary.(137)